AUTHOR ARCHIVES

Tammy Flanagan

Tammy Flanagan has spent 30 years helping federal employees take charge of their retirement by understanding their benefits. She runs her own consulting business at www.tammyflanagan.com and provides individual counseling as well as online training for the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, Plan Your Federal Retirement as well as the Federal Long Term Care insurance Program. She also serves as the senior benefits director for the National Institute of Transition Planning Inc., which conducts federal retirement planning workshops and seminars.

For more retirement planning help, tune in to "For Your Benefit," presented by the National Institute of Transition Planning Inc. live on Federal News Radio on Mondays at 10 a.m. ET on WFED AM 1500 in the Washington-metro area. Archived shows are available on NITPInc.com.

Results 111-120 of 582

Get Counseling

July 30, 2015 Some agencies provide their employees with top-notch retirement counseling. Such agencies typically respond to requests for retirement estimates in a timely fashion. They allow employees to request estimates for several different retirement dates and offer to update those estimates as the employee gets closer to retirement. And they provide a...

8 Reasons Your Retirement Estimate May be Inaccurate

July 23, 2015 I’ve written several times in the past about the importance of getting a retirement estimate from your agency well in advance of your planned retirement date. The only problem is that sometimes these estimates don’t accurately predict what you can expect in retirement. Here are eight of the most common...

How to Estimate Your Retirement

July 16, 2015 The Office of Personnel Management determines exactly how much each federal employee will get in retirement benefits when the time comes to leave federal service. But that process can take a long time. Currently fewer than 70 percent of new retirement claims received by OPM are processed in less than...

Don’t Rush to Withdraw Your Retirement Savings

July 9, 2015 Last week President Obama signed into law a measure allowing federal law enforcement officers, Customs and Border Protection officers, firefighters and air traffic controllers to access funds in their Thrift Savings Plan accounts without penalty under certain circumstances when they retire early. The Defending Public Safety Employees’ Retirement Act ensures...

A Rude Annuity Shock

July 2, 2015 In the federal retirement system, what you don’t know can hurt you. This week, I present the story of a shocking—and arguably unfair—surprise the spouse of a retiree received upon his untimely death. The case involves the quirky plan known as Civil Service Retirement System Offset. CSRS Offset is a...

The TSP Quiz

June 25, 2015 Even the most experienced investors in the federal government’s retirement savings program, the Thrift Savings Plan, may find some things about it surprising. With that in mind, I decided to present a short quiz this week on TSP facts and statistics. When you’ve completed the quiz, click here for the...

TSP Quiz: The Answers

June 25, 2015 Here are the answers to the June 25, 2015 TSP Quiz. 1. b. The TSP says you should begin making plans for how you will withdraw some or all of the savings in your TSP by submitting your withdrawal request no later than the end of February after you are...

How Your Retirement Nest Egg Adds Up

June 18, 2015 I like to think of the Thrift Savings Plan as the icing on the cake of the Federal Employees Retirement System. For many federal retirees, the TSP will play the starring role in a financially comfortable retirement. Since 1987, federal employees have been able to use the TSP to save...

10 Things You Need To Do Before Leaving Government

June 11, 2015 This week, I had the opportunity to attend the annual Women In Federal Law Enforcement conference. It included sessions devoted to “You and Your Federal Career.” The range of knowledge about retirement from the women in attendance--who ranged from relatively new employees to those retiring within the next five years--was...

What You Need to Know About Taxes

June 4, 2015 If you are planning to retire in the near future, there may be things that you don’t know you don’t know. You know? One of those things may be tax planning. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about taxes from friends and associates like Micah Shilanski and Bob Leins....